Sagaboi presents Riddimical Ambush

For Fall Winter 2026, Sagaboi presents Riddimical Ambush, a commanding menswear collection that places Caribbean authorship at the centre of contemporary luxury, using uniform, tailoring, and discipline as tools of cultural authority rather than reference.

Presented during Milan Fashion Week Men’s with the support of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, RiddimicalAmbushmarks a decisive moment for the Trinidad and Tobago–rooted house, further establishing Sagaboi’s presence on the international menswear calendar.

At once personal and political, the collection examines how uniform and formal dress, historically imposed as colonial structure, was absorbed, repurposed, and ultimately transformed by Caribbean men into a language of survival, mobility, and power. Military, marine, and civic codes are treated not as costume, but as systems of order worn, lived, and redefined through labour, ritual, and daily life.

Creative Director Geoff K. Cooper, a descendant of the Merikins, formerly enslaved African Americans who escaped to British lines during the War of 1812, fought as Colonial Marines, and were later settled in Trinidad as free men with land, draws directly from this lineage. Their legacy of service, displacement, and self determination forms the backbone of the collection’s marine and uniform language.

Yet Riddimical Ambushis not confined to the battlefield. Cooper’s understanding of uniform is shaped equally by lived Caribbean experience. Watching his father prepare meticulously for decades of service as a police officer, his mother as a nurse, and growing up within the Shouter Baptist Church, a faith founded in Trinidad by the Merikins themselves. In these spaces, uniform becomes a site of pride, discipline, and self-respect. Dressing is ritual. Appearance is intention. Comportment is authority.

Silhouettes are anchored by sharply structured double-breasted tailoring, ceremonial in presence yet restrained in execution. Key pieces include the RAMAJAY Coat, a floor-length, military informed outerwear piece treated as armour rather than spectacle. The Merikin Marine Jacket, informed by nineteenth century Red Coat uniforms and reworked through Sagaboi’s contemporary Caribbean lens, is finished with embroidered steel pan stick motifs, Caribbean pecten shells, sea glass, brass beads, and mother of pearl. The Merikin Marine Shirt appears as a cotton ready-to-wear staple carrying the pan stick motif as a recurring code.

Tailoring appears in black, navy, tweed, autumnal stripe, red, and leopard. Here, leopard is reclaimed as a symbol of authority rather than excess, drawing from African and diasporic histories where it signified leadership, command, and spiritual power. Corduroy sets and workwear influenced pieces echo uniform logic while remaining grounded in Caribbean wearability. Crochet elements, handcrafted by women crocheters in Trinidad, extend the language of labour and resilience into the wardrobe, functioning as protection as much as ornament.

Rhythm underpins the collection’s structure. Steel pan culture, born in Trinidad from discarded oil drums, is treated not as celebration alone, but as discipline, innovation, and collective precision. Its logic informs proportion, repetition, and restraint throughout the collection. Power is expressed quietly, through control rather than spectacle.

The collection arrived at a moment when the Caribbean was once again in the global spotlight. Recent military strikes by the United States against Venezuela and the capture of its leadership have thrust the region into international geopolitical focus, with implications for regional stability and sovereignty that continue to resonate across governments and communities. Regional waters, borders, and histories have bee drawn into contemporary geopolitical tension. Riddimical Ambush did not respond directly to headlines, but it reflected a longer truth: Caribbean people have always understood structure, movement, and survival, and have long worn authority with composure.

The presentation itself reflected this philosophy. Staged as a static installation, models were positioned in deliberate formation, encouraging close reading of cut, material, and surface. Sound functioned as atmosphere rather than performance. A composed soundscape blended steel pan notes with chants and hymns drawn from St Catherine’s Spiritual Baptist Church, a denomination founded in Trinidad by the Merikins themselves. The audio was developed in collaboration with long-time Sagaboi sound partners BLAKGOLD, reinforcing cadence, restraint, and collective memory as structuring forces within the space.

Riddimical Ambush unfolded as a restrained spatial installation at Fondazione Sozzani. Over one hundred paper boats were placed directly on the floor, forming a dispersed field rather than a focal point. These elements referenced passage, movement, and arrival as acts of will, acknowledging histories of migration, service, trade, and survival that shape Caribbean experience. Fragile in material yet deliberate in placement, the boats grounded the space and required careful navigation, reinforcing the idea that movement carries consequence and intention.

“With Riddimical Ambush, I wanted to show how Caribbean people learned structure, survived within it, and eventually bent it to their will. This is about movement under pressure. About discipline as power. About dignity that does not need permission, volume, or validation,” says Geoff K. Cooper. “I’m interested in what happens before conflict and after survival. The moments when people move quietly, prepare carefully, and carry themselves with intent. That is where Caribbean authority lives, and that is what this collection holds.”

With RiddimicalAmbush, Sagaboi continues to define a menswear language rooted in Caribbean history yet executed with international rigour. Neither nostalgic nor reactionary, the collection asserts a clear point of view. Dignity can be worn. Culture can be structured. Authority moves quietly, but it is unmistakable.